Alex Garland‘s Civil War is about alt-history to about the same degree that Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle is; which is to say, less than you think. Where Dick’s breakthrough is more about an antiques salesman and the I Ching, Garland’s latest is really about photo journalism and the risk inherent to that profession.
Watching CNN regularly, like a good liberal, a reporter like Matthew Chance – who is constantly dodging rumble and putting his body on the line in Ukraine – is someone I think of as having brass fucking balls. He’ll do what it takes to get the story, even if he might get hurt or killed doing it.
I like that this drive is the focus of Civil War. If you’ve seen the trailer or any of the marketing materials that have been the fodder of the very online crowd, you’ll know that in this world, America has fallen. The film opens with an address given by the beleaguered President (Nic Offerman) vowing victory over the combined forces of Texas and California(???), while also having to fend off the emergent Florida Alliance that’s taken over more or less the entire Southeast, and the New People’s Army – basically the entire Northwest all the way to Michigan. It’s a lot of world building, but it barely factors into the movie other than a few direct references. Instead Garland chooses to center Civil War on Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst), a grizzled photojournalist who has achieved legendary status among her field. This reputation ropes in a young amateur named Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) who gloms onto Lee, and her writer colleagues Joel (Wagner Moura) and Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) as they venture out from Manhattan to try and get an interview with the President deep in the heart of the conflict. From there, it’s a road movie, as they venture into scene by scene of desperation and increasing inhumanity as they get closer to the front-lines.
As you can probably tell, its politics are nonsense, and the script doesn’t bother to elaborate on who is fighting who and why. At any given time, the central quartet of journalists can roll up on dudes shooting at other dudes and while in that world their reasons may be of importance, fortuitously none of that is actively expressed to the viewer. It adds a chaotic element that underscores the futility of the conflict and the emotionless veneer that must be present in the job they’re doing. Again, it’s all about getting the story out, nothing more, nothing less.
While it tends to follow the videogame template as each scene passes viewers by, and comparisons to something like The Last of Us or The Walking Dead are very warranted, for the most part each set piece tells a micro story while also moving the arc of its two leads forward in a game of inches. There’s nothing truly revelatory in these passages; but Garland, despite some real wavering here at this point in his career, is able to display a command of tone that he hasn’t shown in about a decade. There’s an especially chilling section with Jesse Plemons that makes for a nice meld of material and actor.
In total, it’s Garland’s strongest effort since Ex Machina, but there’s a caveat; the writer/director’s plotting goes a little pear-shaped when he relies on cliche. When you’re certain something is going to happen, it just about does every time, and there’s a pair of points where one really wishes he could have thought through it a bit more. There’s an inherent flaw when one can see writers trying to chessboard things out in the actual finished product so they can get the character moment they think they need. At points, its like an essay with his notes still written in the margins.
That aside, Civil War is a big improvement on the unwatchable Men and the disappointing Annihilation. Many going to see it this weekend will be mad that their personal political animus is not reflected in any real way on-screen, and it’ll probably be a big flop when that fact gets out to the general audience-goer. But frankly, it’s all the better for it. It’s not about left or right, it’s about the people who are in the trenches telling the story.